Artizone, Online Purveyor of Local Goodness, Expands Its DFW Coverage and Suppliers

Supporting local farmers, ranchers, chef-driven restaurants or family-run anything is all good. But honestly? It's a beat down schlepping across all of North Texas collecting stuff from different spots. The farmer's market, Urban Acres, the cheese place, the wine place, the butcher, and what about milk? Is Braum's local enough? Four hours traversing traffic, with two hours of that time spent at stoplights and getting honked at for reading emails, pretty much takes all the fun out the best buying-local intentions. It makes you want to throw in the towel and zip through McDonald's for one of those new pumpkin pies.

But for every problem, a solution, right? Meet Artizone of Dallas. Here's how it works: Shoppers visit the website and select products from a variety of local vendors and pay just one bill. Artizone then runs about the city collecting all the goods and delivers them at a time and place chosen by the shopper.

Some of our favorites already participate in this masterful logistics confluence, including Dude, Sweet Chocolate; Empire Baking Company; Rex's Seafood; and Scardello. But the fun part is the new people we get to meet: Busy B's Market, JJ&B -- Jellies Jams & Butters, Kessler Cookie Company and Flavors From Afar.

Scott Albrecht at Holy Ravioli also works with Artizone. I spoke with him about it today.

"Everything has run perfectly smooth with them," Albrecht said. "I've actually been surprised at how well they execute. They're really customer-service oriented. If there's ever a problem they always correct it and usually make up for it and then some."

Artizone will also pick up staples like sugar, butter, black sesame seeds and breadcrumbs.

The delivery cost varies depending on the requested date; it can range from $0.99 to as much as $12.99. Once you load your cart and start the check out process online, all the options will be laid out.